Organizational Transformation: Military Departments Can Improve Their Enterprise Architecture Programs
The Department of Defense (DOD) spends billions of dollars annually to build and maintain information technology (IT) systems intended to support its mission. For decades, DOD has been challenged in modernizing its systems environment to reduce duplication and increase integration. Such modernizations can be guided by an enterprise architecture--a blueprint that describes an organization's current and target state for its business operations and supporting IT systems and a plan for transitioning between the two states. DOD has long sought to employ enterprise architectures and has defined an approach for doing so that depends in large part on the military departments developing architectures of their own. In light of the critical role that military department enterprise architectures play in DOD's overall architecture approach, GAO was requested to assess the status of the Departments of the Air Force, Army, and Navy (DON) enterprise architecture programs. To do so, GAO obtained and analyzed key information about each department's architecture relative to the 59 core elements contained in stages 1 through 6 of GAO's Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Air Force | To ensure that the military departments establish commitments to fully develop and effectively manage their enterprise architectures, the Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy each should expeditiously provide to the congressional defense committees a plan that identifies milestones for their respective department's full satisfaction of all of our Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework elements. In the event that a military department does not intend to fully satisfy all elements of our framework, the plan should include a rationale for why the department deems any such element(s) to be not applicable. |
The Department of the Air Force has substantially implemented this recommendation. Specifically, in November 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated that the military departments and the DOD Chief Information Officer determined which of the 59 elements of GAO's Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework provide a return on investment. DOD also provided a plan of action and milestones that the Air Force is to follow in addressing these elements.
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| Department of the Navy | To ensure that the military departments establish commitments to fully develop and effectively manage their enterprise architectures, the Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy each should expeditiously provide to the congressional defense committees a plan that identifies milestones for their respective department's full satisfaction of all of our Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework elements. In the event that a military department does not intend to fully satisfy all elements of our framework, the plan should include a rationale for why the department deems any such element(s) to be not applicable. |
The Department of the Navy has substantially implemented this recommendation. Specifically, in November 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated that the military departments and the DOD Chief Information Officer determined which of the 59 elements of GAO's Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework provide a return on investment. DOD also provided a plan of action and milestones that the Department of the Navy is to follow in addressing these elements.
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| Department of the Army | To ensure that the military departments establish commitments to fully develop and effectively manage their enterprise architectures, the Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy each should expeditiously provide to the congressional defense committees a plan that identifies milestones for their respective department's full satisfaction of all of our Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework elements. In the event that a military department does not intend to fully satisfy all elements of our framework, the plan should include a rationale for why the department deems any such element(s) to be not applicable. |
The Department of the Army has substantially implemented this recommendation. Specifically, in November 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated that the military departments and the DOD Chief Information Officer determined which of the 59 elements of GAO's Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework provide a return on investment. DOD also provided a plan of action and milestones that the Department of the Army is to follow in addressing these elements.
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